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Just a heads-up: As promised, the final version of IE 8 just went live.
It's good for virtually all modern Windows versions (XP and up) but not for Windows 7 Beta, of course.
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Yep, I can't upgrade my Windows 7 build 7057 install to IE8 RTM. That sucks, but the next leaked build will most likely have it included. For all I know though, the IE8 in build 7057 is the RTM.
Nope. Website says it is for Windows XP only. When you attempt to install on Vista, you get a warning stating that you need Windows XP, and install closes.
bkvalheim: When I go to the IE homepage (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx) and click download on Vista it gives me the correct installer. I don't get any warning about XP. Maybe try again?
Quick question: My desktop in my dorm has Vista 64-bit on it. When I install IE8 there will I have to install the 32 and 64 bit versions separately? I would assume that Microsoft would install them both from the same install file, but I don't know.
Yikes. Performance was atrocious on my XP system. I had to uninstall it.
Well, the installation went w/out a glitch. The installer found a previous version of IE (must have been IE8 RC1), removed it, rebooted and the began to install IE8, a second reboot and now I'm on IE8.
Time to install IE7Pro and see how it works with IE8 (it worked acceptably well with IE8 RC1).
I have to say that I've been surprised by IE8. I'm, a dedicated Firefox user and likely will be for some time to come but it definitely feels as snappy as Firefox is.
It looks very strong.
It's good to see a competitive browser market, end users will reap the reward with developers being able create better websites for their customers with extended functionality. This is a much better situation than where we were 5 years ago with Internet Explorer all but abandoned by Microsoft and the browser was as we knew it completed...
Good stuff MS. But Firefox is still it for me.
@shark47 I noticed IE8 Beta was horrible on my XP machine at work but has always ran well on Vista. I 'felt' like the RC was better on XP and thus far, the Final feels about the same. FF is definitely better on XP. Not sure why. This is XP install is only a few months old.
I haven't d/led it yet as I'm at work, but have they changed the tab behaviour so that you can close a tab without having to actually switch to it? This is a major showstopper for me if it still works like IE7.
@deepfry: I'm not sure what you mean, but you can middle-click a tab to close it w/out having to click to that tab to close it.
@deepfry:
Right click on the tab and select close tab from the menu. While not as intuitive as Microsoft leaving the x on unfocused tabs, it certainly does work almost as well.
As someone who has used IE 8 for sometime in the Windows 7 Beta and Windows 7 Build 7057 on my desktop, it was quite an easy decision for me to upgrade or not.
I'm writing to you on my Vista 32 bit notebook with IE 8.
IE 8 is very similar to my experiences in Windows 7, except that the Windows 7 OS definitely a lot more nimbler. However, the browser does feel more responsive than IE 7. This is definitely not your previous Internet Explorer's. Will it stem the tide to Firefox? I personally doubt it. However, if people approach this one objectively, there is a stronger possibility that it can.
Since IE 8 overall has gotten very good reviews, I think that will help. I just feel that Microsoft has been cast as this almost Machiavellian villain and some of it rightly so. Other times the people castigating Microsoft have their own Machiavellian like duplicity. So it will be a tough sell for Microsoft. However, I just hope people will give it a fair and honest assessment.
"@shark47 I noticed IE8 Beta was horrible on my XP machine at work but has always ran well on Vista."
Yeah, not sure why it was that bad.
Yo Waethorn. Does IE 8 work with GE Centricity?
Subzerohitman, my Vista 32 bit notebook only cost $399 ;)
"Does IE 8 work with GE Centricity?"
Yes, but I don't have that computer here to test the site/software in native mode though. Just add it to the compatibility list if something doesn't work.
Thanks Wae, I'm still a little timid to try it with IE 8 from home [using browser of course].
IE8 runs very well on my XP desktop at home. A welcome improvement of IE7. FF 3 has been giving me fits, maybe its time to come back to IE.
Hey, Paul, in your IE8 review of the browser's features, mainly the search bar, you didn't mention that when a user searches for a program, say, 'google earth' (no quotes), the search results will display below the suggested entry a link to program's (Google Earth) the site.
This seems to only work with Google (default search engine).
BTW, speaking of IE8's search bar and Google, I don't know if it supports Visual Search (yet). I know Live Search does, though not for every search query. I hope Google does add Visual Search!
PS The URL in search box feature also works with sites. I just typed 'google news' and when I clicked on the Google News result, it IE8 loaded Google News.
This is awesome. It's like Google's 'I'm Feeling Lucky"!
Has anyone noticed that on build 7057 IE 8 takes forever to connect and the GUI is slow to load, especially when opening a new tab? The final release on Vista 64 is slightly faster, but still noticeably slower than Firefox or Chrome in these areas.
I don't notice much of a difference in actual page load times between FF 3.1 b3, Chrome BETA 2 and IE 8. Not enough on the pages I frequent to really notice overall.
The slower connection and GUI problems with IE8 make it feel much slower than the other browsers, even when actual page rendering is similar between all three browsers. I will wait to give a final verdict until the RC for 7 is released since I don't have regular access to the Vista 64 box. If these two things are not significantly better by the RC of 7, I will not be switching from Firefox.
Here is a interesting interview with Charlie Miller and why he chose Safari to pwn instead of IE or Firefox. One of his comments is that Firefox is the hardest browser to crack on Windows with Chrome a close second and IE third. He also states OSX is incredibly easy to hack because it lacks the protections built into both Vista and Win 7.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2941
After reading his comments, I have no choice but to come to the conclusion that the most secure browser right now is Firefox on Windows.
@Toddimous,
I haven't notice any lag in the build 7057 build or the 7057 version of IE 8 in either 32 or 64 bit browsing. Then again, this is a near RC build. It hasn't been forked away to a proper RC escrow build at least to my knowledge. So it might be a bit premature to judge this. However, some machines run different Windows 7 builds flawlessly and other will have some of these minor annoyances. I think its just part of the clean up process.
As far as Charlie Miller's comments, you can look at any of the 2008 IBM X-Force Threat and Risk Reports, the 1st quarter 2008 N.V.D. reports done by Microsoft, and OS Vulernability Score Card and come to the same conclusion as Charlie Miller. Apple thinks OS-X and Safari are secured. Microsoft gets hit because it has over a billion machiens out there. It gets the most attention.
However, Apple did have the highest amount of vulnerabilities in 2008 followed by the Linux Kernel. According to IBM's reports, Apple and the Linux Kernel have been the top most vulnerable for the last 3 years.
However, our Mac friends will say otherwise, because they haven't been hit yet. Just because OS-X has not been hit to a high degree yet, doesn't take away the fact that the high number of vulnerabiltiies still exists. It is like having a defective component in your car that has not malfunctioned yet. Eventually this has to come back and haunt them. iThreats is already showing that more rogue applications, malware threats for OS-X. I think hacker's and cracker's are getting wise to this and are starting to figure it out.
It will be interesting to see how well Firefox and IE 8 duke it out.
Toddimous: "Has anyone noticed that on build 7057 IE 8 takes forever to connect and the GUI is slow to load, especially when opening a new tab?"
I'm running Win7 x64 build 7057 and I don't have this problem with IE8. It's definitely the fastest IE I've ever seen at starting up and loading pages. You might have something weird going on with your install. Also, you might want to check your proxy and DNS settings. Those can sometimes slow down a browser.
I now use Chrome as my main browser because of it's speed and simplicity. I would judge that IE8 is about 20-30% slower than Chrome - on average - at starting up and loading pages. I used to be a Firefox guy it's beginning to feel kind of sluggish to me these days, and I don't depend on the extensions enough to warrant the experience. Safari 4 is definitely the fastest but something about its interface is disconcerting to me.
I keep forgetting about the "middle click", thanks guys. I feel pretty much the same as ken - Chrome feels like a nimbler application overall that I tend to use it more than any other browser. I have been playing with safari 4 on the win7 beta but it hasn't been too stable (it is a memory hog and tends to freeze often). Too bad I can't test the IE8 final build on the win7 beta, I will have to test it on xp this weekend and see how it feels - but from the comments above I'm not going to hold my breath.
I find the middle click a little annoying, especially on those scroll wheel thingies.
IE8 is pretty good on my other computers by the way. I like the Weather Webslice - very convenient!
I did an install of this on top of the newest beta. I read over on the msdn ie blog that you no longer needed to un-install the beta ie8 and then install the new. That the new would remove all the old/beta code.
Anyone do the same as me? I know it's hard to break old habits of still believing you need to un-install first...
If anyone has a minute, let me know.
Thanks
